Set a new intention: Experience Early Mornings

Posted on August 29, 2015

Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself. I have been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks. I got up early and bathed in the pond; that was a religious exercise, and one of the best things which I did. They say that characters were engraven on the bathing tub of King Tchingthang to this effect: “Renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever again.” I can understand that. – Henry David Thoreau, ‘Walden’

I got active on Instagram last year to do a project 365. I told myself – I will wake up early in the morning, take a picture and post. My enthusiasm for taking pictures got me out of bed on most days. Until I failed. Time for another attempt at it. I want to become a morning person. I want to see sunrise and sleep at a sane hour. Reading about ayurveda which is all about being in tune with the nature and seasons, inspired me to make this resolve. I also have a fair plan as to how I want my mornings to look like.

Pranayam:

They are breathing exercises proven to improve lung capacity and general health. My mom and me are hiking a mountain in the Himalayas next summer. I can definitely use some additional lung health to beat the altitude fatigue.

Body Brush:

Body brushing is an age old Chinese method of improving circulation in the body and skin tone. It is rumoured to help with detoxification and prevents cellulite. I like how good I feel after.

Read something that sets the tone for the day:

I have a 20 year old habit of reading before bed time. But the books I have been reading are rather good, robbing my sleep. I want to reserve these for the morning and use this inspiration to carry me through the day. I am currently reading Jiddu Krishnamurthy‘s The Book of Life.

Make a small to-do list:

Put all those moleskines I own to good use … Checking something off the list is extremely gratifying and small victories count.

Smoothie:

I want my breakfast to be something green, something raw & something balanced in nutrients. I have been drinking green smoothies everyday for the last four years. And there is no going back on it. I never crave anything else in the morning. It is one thing I do right and will keep at it.

Dress up:

Inspite of my vested interest in fashion and personal style, I have repeat offenders that I wear all the time . This results in unused clothing or my favourties being saved for later. If I am not running late every single day, I know I will make an effort. Every day is important.

The cons :

A lonely life. There is so much night life around me and most of my teammates are night owls. So am I. The thought of going to bed before midnight feels like it’s going to be life devoid of the late night excitement I currently have.

I can not believe the number of times I have failed at this resolution. I think its easier to do a 30 day challenge and go from there. I have attempted 5am and it never worked. I think I should attempt 6am for now and go from there. The husband promised to take me rock climbing as a reward if I keep at it for a month. Climbing is on top of my list of new things to try before I die. Its a month away from me if I do this. Lets go !

Beautiful post! I joined the 5 am club at the beginning of the year (I was a night person) because I wanted to ensure and integrate chanting, yoga and pranayama for an hour a day to move about my daily life with more awareness and shift from reacting to circumstances to acting upon intuition. Meanwhile, I often hear from others that I have this serenity and calm about me lately. However, I do need to go to bed at 10pm otherwise I lack rest but I do not feel that I am missing out on anything now either. But in between I do fall into old habits… as my spiritual teacher says so nicely – Bad habits are like a comfy bed: easy to get in but difficult to get out. 😉

After many years of failed attempts at waking up earlier, I was finally successful last year, when I began to focus on going to bed earlier. I have to have 8 hours of sleep each night or the day is miserable, so I just worked backwards. I also made the change gradually, with first aiming to be in bed by 11:30, then 11, then 10:30. Now I’m in bed between 10-10:30 (though sometimes not asleep until 11), and typically wake up between 6-7 without an alarm. The occasional late night activity is easy enough to recover from, since I’m usually working from a place of being well rested, though if it happens too often it really throws off the schedule. We’ve tried to shift more of our friends entertainment schedules by hosting afternoon events, to which our friends have been surprisingly receptive.

I had yet another failure. And I need to start trying again. I am trying to get to bed by 11pm but I seem to lay there awake for an hour. But thank you. Your way of tackling it is the best chance I got to tame this habit.

And lucky you. To have friends who want to do noons. Mine are all asleep till 11am.